Decision-feedback equalization of pulse-position modulation on measured nondirected indoor infrared channels

Abstract

We examine the performance of two decision-feedback equalizers (DFEs) for pulse-position modulation (PPM) on measured nondirected indoor infrared channels with intersymbol interference. PPM offers high average-power efficiency, but on ISI channels, unequalized PPM suffers severe performance penalties. We have previously examined the performance of the maximum-likelihood sequence detector (MLSD), and found that it yields significant improvements. However, the MLSD often requires such large complexity and delay that it may be impractical. We investigate suboptimal, reduced-complexity equalization techniques for PPM, providing a performance analysis of zero-forcing chip-rate and symbol-rate DFEs. Our results show that a symbol-rate DFE provides performance that closely approaches that of the optimal MLSD.